FOIA ANNUAL REPORT Fiscal Year – 2003

The Office of Administration, whose sole function is to advise and assist the President, and which has no substantial independent authority, is not subject to FOIA and related authorities. However, these pages have been maintained due to the Presidential Records Act.

III) Basic Terms Used in this Report

FOIA/PA request -- Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act request. A FOIA request is generally a request for access to records concerning a third party, an organization, or a particular topic of interest. A Privacy Act request is a request for records concerning oneself; such requests are also treated as FOIA requests. (All requests for access to records, regardless of which law is cited by the requester, are included in this report.)

Initial Request -- a request to a federal agency for access to records under the Freedom of Information Act.

Appeal -- a request to a federal agency asking that it review at a higher administrative level a full denial or partial denial of access to records under the Freedom of Information Act, or any other FOIA determination such as a matter pertaining to fees.

Processed Request or Appeal -- a request or appeal for which an agency has taken a final action on the request or the appeal in all respects.

Expedited processing -- an agency will process a FOIA request on an expedited basis when a requester has shown an exceptional need or urgency for the records which warrants prioritization of his or her request over other requests that were made earlier.

Grant -- an agency decision to disclose all records in full in response to a FOIA request.

Partial grant -- an agency decision to disclose a record in part in response to a FOIA request, deleting information determined to be exempt under one or more of the FOIA's exemptions; or a decision to disclose some records in their entireties, but to withhold others in whole or in part.

Denial -- an agency decision not to release any part of a record or records in response to a FOIA request because all the information in the requested records is determined by the agency to be exempt under one or more of the FOIA's exemptions, or for some procedural reason.

Time limits -- the time period in the Freedom of Information Act for an agency to respond to a FOIA request (OA calculations are based on 20 calendar days from proper receipt of a "perfected" FOIA request rather than 20 working days from proper receipt of a "perfected" request)

"Perfected" request -- a FOIA request for records which adequately describes the records sought, which has been received by the FOIA office of the agency or agency component in possession of the records, and for which there is no remaining question about the payment of applicable fees.

Exemption 3 statute -- a separate federal statute prohibiting the disclosure of a certain type of information and authorizing its withholding under FOIA subsection (b)(3).

Median number -- the middle, not average, number. For example, of 3, 7, and 14, the median number is 7.

Average number -- the number obtained by dividing the sum of a group of numbers by the quantity of numbers in the group. For example, of 3, 7, and 14, the average number is 8.

Days -- the number of calendar days used to compute calculations.

IV) Exemption 3 Statutes

List of Exemption 3 statues relied on by agency during current fiscal year: Not applicable.

Brief description of type(s) of information withheld under each statute. N/A

Request(s).
a. number of requests processed: 34
b. median number of days to process (including weekends and holidays): 8 calendar days

Requests accorded expedited processing:
a. Number of requests processed. 1
b. Median number of days to process: 120

Status of pending requests.

Number of requests pending as of end of current fiscal year: 5

Median number of days that such requests were pending as of that date process (including weekends and holidays): 56 calendar days

VII) Comparisons with Previous Year (s) (Optional):

Comparison of numbers of request received. 47(FY2002) & 38 (FY2003)

Comparison of numbers of request processed. 47 (FY2002) & 35 (FY2003)

Requests granted expedited processing

Expedited processing requested. 2

Expedited processing granted. 1

IX) Costs/FOIA Staffing:

Staffing levels.

Number of full time FOIA personnel: 1 (full time FOIA/Privacy Act Officer with other collateral duties)

Number of personnel with part time or occasional FOIA duties (in total work years): 0
Note: The employees performing the search of records in each division varies depending upon the type and scope of search being conducted. Therefore, we have only included the personnel performing the review in the FOIA Office.

Total number of personnel (in work years): 1

Total costs (including staff and all resources): approximately $65,000 to $78,000
Search and review time/fees are tracked when the requester is to incur processing fees. Search and review time is not tracked if charges are to be waived.

Litigation fees were not tracked.

X) Fees:

Total amount of fees collected by agency for processing requests: $0.00

Percentage of total costs: (Note: Search and review time is not tracked if charges are to be waived. The cost of processing FOIA.s is much higher than shown.)